His voice grew weak. He feared that the nobles who were in the balconies would not hear him. So he asked them to come upon the scaffold. They consented and came. Each shook Ralegh's hand, as he thanked them for this last courtesy.
He continued his speech amidst the silence of the crowd. He defended himself against the charges of complicity with France, of disloyalty to the King, and then he said—
"For my going to Guiana many thought I never intended it, but intended only to gain my liberty,—which I would I had been so wise as to have kept. But as I shall answer it before the same God before whom I am shortly to appear, I endeavoured, and I hoped to have enriched the King, myself, and my partners. But I was undone by Keymis, a wilful fellow, who seeing my son slain and myself unpardoned, would not open the mine, and killed himself.
"It was also told the King that I was brought by force into England, and that I did not intend to come back again. I protest that when the voyage succeeded not, and that I resolved to come home, my company mutinied against me. They fortified the gun-room against me, and kept me within my own cabin; and would not be satisfied except I would take a corporal oath not to bring them into England until I had gotten the pardons of four of them,—there being four men unpardoned. So I took that oath. And we came into Ireland, where they would have landed in the north parts. But I would not, because there the inhabitants were all Redshanks. So we came to the south, hoping from thence to write to his Majesty for their pardons. In the meantime I offered to places in Devon and Cornwall, to lie safe till they had been pardoned."
Ralegh now turned towards Lord Arundel, who was standing on the scaffold. "I am glad that my Lord of Arundel is here. For when I went down to my ship, his Lordship and divers others were with me. At the parting salutation, his Lordship took me aside and desired me freely and faithfully to resolve him in one request, which was, 'Whether I made a good voyage or a bad, yet I should return again into England.' I made you a promise and gave you my faith that I would."
Lord Arundel said in a loud voice, "And so you did. It is true that they were the last words I spake unto you."
And Ralegh went on: "Other reports are raised of me, touching that voyage which I value not.... I will yet borrow a little time of Master Sheriff to speak of one thing more. It doth make my heart bleed to hear such an imputation laid upon me. It was said that I was a persecutor of my Lord of Essex, and that I stood in a window over against him when he suffered, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. I take God to witness that my eyes shed tears for him when he died. And as I hope to look in the face of God hereafter, my Lord of Essex did not see my face when he suffered. I was afar off, in the Armoury, where I saw him but he saw not me. And my soul hath been many times grieved that I was not near unto him when he died, because I understood that he asked for me, at his death, to be reconciled to me. I confess I was of a contrary faction. But I knew that my Lord of Essex was a noble gentleman, and that it would be worse with me when he was gone. For those that set me up against him did afterwards set themselves against me."
Ralegh knelt in prayer, asking the assembled crowd to pray with him. He rose and the executioner knelt before him to ask his forgiveness. Ralegh put his hand on the masked figure's two shoulders and said that he forgave him with all his heart. "Show me the axe," he cried, "show me the axe." Then he felt the edge with his thumb and approved of its sharpness. "This gives me no fear. It is a sharp and fair medicine to cure me of all my diseases." And presently, "When I stretch forth my hands despatch me." He turned to all the people and said in a loud voice, "Give me heartily your prayers."
His velvet cloak was taken off. He knelt in prayer. He laid his neck upon the block and stretched out his hands. But the masked figure in black, the executioner, was unmanned by the scene. He could not raise the axe. Again Ralegh stretched out his hands. The man remained motionless. Then Ralegh cried out, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man, strike!" It was necessary for him to give the man courage to kill him. At last the axe was lifted, and with two swift blows his neck was severed.
So lived Sir Walter Ralegh, and so he died.